Summary.Tests of cognitive preference and achievement in high school biology were given to a stratified random sample of 989 Israeli twelfth grade students. Levels of cognitive preference and achievement were related to four independent variables namely sex, school environment, the nature of the curriculum and the attitudes of teachers, toward an inquiry oriented curriculum. A strong dependence of cognitive preference orientation on achievement was found. High achieving students exhibited a strong preference for critical questioning, a weak preference for fundamental principles as well as a strong dissatisfaction with recall. The ‘cognitive preference‐achievement’ relationship depended on the specific subject matter content, but was not related to Bloom's taxonomy levels. The ‘cognitive preference‐achievement’ relationship was found to be significantly affected by sex, the school environment, the curriculum and the curricular bias of the teachers. Certain interactions among these independent variables were al